ABSTRACT
The Wagnerian principle has provisionally gained a complete victory, and a natural consequence is, that all who take an interest in music are looking eagerly forward to the coming first representation of Tannhauser. Even the criticisms in the Leipzig daily press have been well-disposed; merely the reporter of the Tageblatt talked some nonsense at first, but made haste to eat his words after the second performance." In fact, the Rheingold music stands almost as a thing apart, at once a boundary- and a foundation-stone. Trenchancy of rhythm and sobriety of modulation—these are the distinctive features of the music of the Prologue to the Ring. Subtlety is to appear in train of the more complex passions of the later nights: the passages of richer orchestration are almost confined to landscape-painting. 'South-German musical conditions,' however, seem to have triumphed over Dingelstedt's else so good intention; the news is recalled.
